[Otto Nobedder]

kermdawg, sros,

Is this a trend?

I welded my first bead when I was thirteen. I learned to program a computer the same year. I'm giving away my age, but the primary languages were BASIC, PASCAL, FORTRAN, COBOL, and assembler. The Apple IIe was the most advanced small computer available. In high school, as I was getting half-decent at running a bead, I was competing at the international level for programming in BASIC, and managing the computer lab at the elementary school.

I wonder if there is a correlation between welding skills and computer skills?

[kermdawg]

I think its more a correlation between personality types. I.E. people who are into computer programming are more likely to be into welding and visa versa.

HOWEVER-I want to bring up something that some of you older guys can probably comment on. ALOT of the older hands I have worked with, still dont have a cell phone, never used a computer, etc. Being that 75 percent of welders (and all construction workers in this country really) are over the age of 40, dont you think that could have something to do with it? Many people over 40 havnt embraced techonology like my generation has, and therefore arent going to hop onto a forum, much less a forum for something they have been doing for 20 plus years and presumeably are already very good at it.

Likewise, many of the older hands still have the "if you dont know what your doing stand firewatch for 6 months and MAYBE ill let you tach a hanger on" attitude when it comes to teaching. That is, they are very secretive and not willing to teach others about their craft. I've been doing construction since I was 14, professionally since I was 18, and I havnt run across very many guys like this, maybe one or two. But I know back in the day alot of em were like that. Hence yet another reason a forum like this may not be as active as one might think.

BTW, I started programming on a tandy when I was 4, with a basic book my mom had from college. I remember apple II E's and her robotics class. I remember my first computer was a 486 16 mhz with 16 megs of ram and a 180 megabyte harddrive, of which windows 3.1 took up about 30 percent of that. Ive been building computers since I was 11. Guess building stuffs just in my blood.Remember c and c++?Visual basic ring a bell anyone? :p Now I feel old. THANKS OTTO!!

[Otto Nobedder]

I'm 42.

I have a cell phone, but they'll have a hard time selling me a smartphone.

The last time I got a new cell phone, the eager young kid asked what features I was looking for. You should have seen the look on his face when I said I need it to make and receive calls.

I kept up with tech until I was about 26, when I realized I didn't really need any of it. I went two years without a telephone of any kind, on purpose. I now use what I'm comfortable with, and ignore the rest. Social networking? That's what I do at the bar after work (and I rarely do that!).

It might have seemed the old hands were keeping secrets, but you had to prove you deserved to learn before they would turn loose of their knowledge. You didn't have 50 "no habla" in line with you for the job.

Steve

[kermdawg]

I'm 42.

I have a cell phone, but they'll have a hard time selling me a smartphone.

The last time I got a new cell phone, the eager young kid asked what features I was looking for. You should have seen the look on his face when I said I need it to make and receive calls.

This is hilarious cause I am the exact same way cept im 15 years younger :p My old phone got stolen on the job one day(one of the laborers I think) and I went to replace it. FIRST THING the guy does is try and sell me an Iphone. I said, dude, I'm a construction worker. That thing will be destroyed in a week(turns out I was wrong, cause the next job I went to 5 of the guys on a 14 man crew had em) So he said, well what do you want in a phone? I said, SOMETHING THAT MAKES PHONE CALLS. WTF else is a phone for.

I had actually researched a phone that you can dunk in water for up to 1 minute and still work, and they actually ran it over with a semi and it worked too. Mil spec ! (my research was maxim magazine lol) but it still works, tough little bugger. stands up well to the dust, which as you guys all know, is/was hell on the older phones.

Guess im just old fashioned. Why's everything so complicated these days? Why isnt life SIMPLE anymore?? Why do I need 50 differant functions on my tig welder?

edit-social networking? I had facebook/myspace for about 2 years. Then I quit. Now none of my friends talk to me anymore cause all they ever do is talk to each other on FB/Myspace. Probably the only guy under 30 on the planet without a facebook page anymore lol.

[Otto Nobedder]

On reflection, I'm so glad I never got involved in facebook and the like.

If you google my full name, you'll get ONE exact match, and I can't do anything about that, as it is a public record (a court docket sheet ).

I like my privacy, and am pleased to still have most of it. Although my wife feels the same way, she's considering joining facebook as a way to keep up with the grandchildren (who are, of course, very tech-savvy and plugged in).

In reference to the dust, I have a small rare-earth magnetic pickup tool that does an awesome job of removing iron dust from the speakers on my phone, because it's stronger than the speaker magnet.

Steve

[metlcre8or]

I wouldn't presume to speak for everyone, but I'm sure many of the people on this forum are probably in the same boat as me. I run a small independent fab shop and these days we turn away practically no work. This doesn't leave much time (or energy) to spend on-line.

[metlcre8or]

kermdawg, sros,

Is this a trend?

I welded my first bead when I was thirteen. I learned to program a computer the same year. I'm giving away my age, but the primary languages were BASIC, PASCAL, FORTRAN, COBOL, and assembler. The Apple IIe was the most advanced small computer available. In high school, as I was getting half-decent at running a bead, I was competing at the international level for programming in BASIC, and managing the computer lab at the elementary school.

I wonder if there is a correlation between welding skills and computer skills?

Otto,

I have been involved in computers since 1968 (when computers were the size of a small house and had the power of a cheap digital watch), have 17 computer related patents, been Engineering VP, COO and CEO of several computer peripheral manufacturers. I can, and have programmed in nearly every computer language known. Today I own a small independent fab shop, enjoy welding and machining parts, and only use my computer (a Mac) for CAD, internet searches and email.

Working with metal is far more satisfying than anything done with computers.

Bill the metal creator.

[Otto Nobedder]

Bill, that sounds about right.

I've programmed an Altair with the flip switches and register key. I think it had 256 bytes of RAM.

My brother was a Marine Corps specialist in computers, and "installed" programs with punch-cards.

Thanks for the history lesson, and the reminder of my age.

Steve

[kermdawg]

I have been involved in computers since 1968 (when computers were the size of a small house and had the power of a cheap digital watch

Yep, thats goin in the sig :):)

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Just scrolled down out of curiousty and the earlier post I could find was from Oct 2009. I think theirs been a board change or two, but if thats as old as the site is, theres a real possibilty alot of people just dont know about it and the community hasnt had the time to grow yet. I mean, thats less than 2 years old.